Thursday, September 20, 2007

Wedding Special, General Reactions

Hmm, I wanted to blog about Tales of the Sinestro Corps: Parallax for a bit (verdict: awesome) but my mind keeps wandering back to the Black Canary/Green Arrow Wedding Special.

(Moderate Spoiler Warning)

It's like grapefruit juice.

That probably doesn't make any sense if you're not me, so I'll try to elaborate. Essentially to this day, I don't know if I like grapefruit juice. Which probably isn't odd, as there are a lot of things I don't know whether I like, the difference being that I haven't tried them.

I've drank grapefruit juice before, a couple of times. And it's not that I'm indifferent to it, but I spend time after every sip trying to figure out if I like or hate it. As I'm generally an opinionated person, I'm used to knowing immediately whether I like something. Here...I've got an opinion, I know I do, but I simply can't parse it.

Much the same as the Wedding Special honestly. There were some parts that made me smile: Roy and Hal's identical reactions to the wedding invitations, Diana and Clark's conversation, the bachelorette party, that picture of Barda carrying Scott in the last scene...

Some parts that made me wince: mostly Dinah's actions in the battle scene. Is she really that stupid to chase after a ring like that? Not to mention, once more requiring saving from Deathstroke...

I have to admit, the ending surprised me. A lot. (Though really, given how skilled a martial artist Dinah is supposed to be, that was the ONLY method at her disposal?) I'm curious to see where it's going in the new book.

Ultimately though, I still can't put my finger on my reaction. Maybe I'll just put it down and reread Cap or Parallax instead.

13 Comments:

I too, find myself somewhat torn. I was having a lovely time, snickering through the first part of the book, trying to identify everyone at the wedding, and completely enjoying Amanda Connor's artwork. Seriously, she was channeling Kevin Maguire, and her expressions are amazing.

And then the last couple of pages, and it all came to a screeching halt, and a "whuh?" I'm not actually buying that that is REALLY Ollie, but still, it was a downer.

I'm still trying to figure out how Dinah has the strength to cleanly put an arrow through a man's neck with one hand.

Seriously!

Glad to see I'm not the only one wondering about Dinah going bimbo chasing after the ring.

Other things that annoyed me...

* Deathstroke gets away. AGAIN!

* The whole motivation for the villains doing what they're doing? "Wanna go screw with the heroes?" This is especially maddening coming from Deathstroke (a mercenary) and Sivani (a scientist) - two men who have always been depicted as being villainous for a reason.

* Babs' tearful reaction to the wedding invitation, after everything she said to Dinah about the propsal in Birds of Prey #109.

* Every character who was surprised by the wedding invitations despite being involved in some aspect of planning the wedding (Babs, Roy, etc...)

* The donkey among the strippers that Hal hired. Just... ewwwwww.

And how sad is it that I find myself hoping that really is Ollie at the end so at least Winick can't write him anymore?

I'm not a huge fan of "one shots" and "specials" to begin with and generally speaking only pick them up if it effects a storyline I already plan on keeping up with. The Wedding in general has interested me, at least to the extent that I have given it more than a passing thought. I've mainly been curious about how long Ollie can really keep his favouite pass time between himself and Carany.

But I deviate.

From what i've heard the overall story isn't stellar but I have heard good praise about the Artwork. Would anyone recomend I pick up this issue based on the merits of Amanda Conner's talent alone or do you think my money would be better spent elsewhere?

For what one man's opinion is worth, your money is defintely better spent elsewhere. The artwork is gorgeous and fun but it's not enough to negate the fact that you'd be paying money for a Judd Winick story.

Or the fact that Ollie has (in Winick's mind, at least) gone back to cheating on Dinah with Shado instead of being raped. (The note about betrayal during the montauge of Ollie and Dinah's relationship is in the panel of Shado and Ollie)

...

I'm trying to be good and NOT write a huge column pointing out every single problem with this book since me going after Winick has become a joke to most of the blogging community... but this is just too....

He'll be off after a year. I keep telling myself that at the rate DC has been cutting bait lately, he WILL be off the book in a year.

I hate to say I called it, but I did. When I first heard that they were getting married, I knew that at least one of them would get killed (or maimed) in the wedding issue. That seems to be the way DC rolls these days.

I gave it a chance, 'cause I really thought that they'd decide to give 'em a happy ending just so they could pull the rug out from under the naysayers who say DC can't do an event comic without killing someone. I really thought they'd decide not to be completely predictable hacks.

I hate to be right, because I was so loving the story up until that point.

Amanda Connor really is awesome but, Winick....my God. I try to root for the guy but he never gives me a reason to. Everybody was stupid in this. After the speech in BoP, I wouldn't have thought Babs reaction would be "Good for you, girl." I actually like Snapper. Wasn't at all fond of his portrayal in this. I'm usually pretty easy to please, but this left me moody.